


Project Work

by FreakyPseudWriter



Series: Iruka Week 2021 [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Confessions, F/M, Feelings, First Dates, Fluff, Love Confessions, Secret Crush, Study Date, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29979201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakyPseudWriter/pseuds/FreakyPseudWriter
Summary: Working on a project for a course you're barely interested in is already bad enough, but knowing you have to work on a project with the absolute gorgeous, kind, gentle Iruka...Needless to say, you can't really concentrate on the matter at hand.
Relationships: Umino Iruka & Reader, Umino Iruka/Original Character(s), Umino Iruka/Original Female Character(s), Umino Iruka/Reader
Series: Iruka Week 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199300
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Comforting as hell, Iruka Week 2021





	Project Work

**Author's Note:**

> And the fourth prompt for Iruka Week ^^ I'm really happy with the reactions so far, and spreading some love for Iruka is never a bad thing after all ;D He's a cutie pie.  
> I'm a sucker for University AUs, not going to lie here. Thus, Iruka is still a serious prankster but also a diligent student who wants to do good on his projects. 
> 
> Have fun with this one! See you all again tomorrow with the next prompt ^^

“Uhm…” Clutching your messenger bag-strap with both hands, you stopped right in front of the desk. The boy… Man? Gods, it was strange thinking of the barely mature people around you —including yourself— as adults. The guy sitting at the desk looked up from his laptop, his soft-looking hair in the shade of hazelnuts falling around his neck. Just a few strands were tied together in the back of his head, complimenting his darker skin and the smile sparkling in his dark eyes. 

Finally, you decided onto a silly little wave. Terribly awkward, and your stomach flipped itself over at the sight of the smile forming on his face. “Hey there. You’re Iruka Umino, right?”

“Yeah.” One of his hands flew up and scratched the scar crossing the bridge of his nose. “That’s me. You’re (Y/N)?”

“Yes.”

“Alright.” His feet shuffled over the ground as Iruka stood up from his chair. It revealed more of him and you would’ve groaned in despair if you could do so without sounding strange. Goddamn, even his clothes were adorable on him! A worn-out university-shirt, faded-green with red swirls and a stylized leaf printed on the chest, a knitted hoodie in black and grey thrown over his shoulders and really comfy looking pants adorning his legs. If your crush could grow beyond the infinity, then it would’ve just done that. 

While you were fighting your raging blush, Iruka made space for you at the overflowing desk in the library. Open books, notes, pencils and folders were sprawled across the entirety of the surface, different colors of markers tumbling down when he moved a particular fickle stack of notes.

“Sorry, shit, sorry for that.” His voice was just as nervous as you felt. Quickly, he bent down to pick up the pencils and you followed shortly after to help. Scrambling over the floor and picking up the different markers, only to drop them on top of the table. 

“Thank you.” He smiled; and the smile knocked the breath out of your chest. How dare him for being so attractive and cute and adorable!

“No problem.” You smiled back at him and desperately hoped it didn’t look as shaky as you felt. “Happens to me all the time. That I drop something, I mean.”

“Really?” 

“Yes. Only yesterday, I dropped my entire bag down the front stairs. Thankfully, nothing broke.”

“That’s really lucky.”

Silence settled over you, only disturbed by the quiet whispering of the other students around you also studying, learning and communicating with each other, all of it mixed with the quiet tapping of keyboards, the shuffling of books and turning of pages. The last pencils were picked up and when you looked up from the floor, you found yourself almost nose-to-nose with Iruka. So close his face filled your entire vision, so close you could smell him, so close that for a tiny moment, you could spot the golden specks in his brown eyes and wonder if they would sparkle when he smiled. 

Then, the short moment was over. Iruka twitched backwards, mumbling another apology, while you did the same.

“Oh gods, I’m sorry-!”

“I didn’t even notice, I’m so sorry-!”

“Just, uuuhm…” You backed away yourself, coughing awkwardly and straightening yourself. “Yeah, sorry for that. But I fear, if we apologize one more time to each other, I think we will never get off this carousel of apologies.” 

That made Iruka smile, thankfully. The little wrinkles appearing in the corners of his eyes told you that he liked to smile a lot, only fitting for his sunny personality. Once more, your breath was stolen right out of your lungs, just by the raw power of Iruka’s radiant smile. Gods, how unfair was that? How could one single person light up an entire room like this with nobody else noticing? You were flabbergasted at the ignorance of the other students around you, but welcomed the undivided attention still. After more awkward shuffling, you settled into the seat opposite of Iruka’s. 

“So, any ideas about the presentation yet?” Iruka’s gentle eyes met yours, before he bent over the table once more. His hair fell into his face and with a subconscious gesture, he wiped the few strands again behind his ears. You only noticed you held your breath when he came back up again, the end of his pencil caught between his lips and ruffling over papers in search of an empty sheet. 

“No,” you also dropped your bag on the table, taking out your laptop and notepad just in case you needed to make some more notes. Some things couldn’t be contained by a screen and a keypad. “Unfortunately, I was not really creative up until this point.”

“I mean,” Iruka rolled his eyes, “I only added art history 101 to get full credits, I barely know enough to make out a 18th century painting in a row of 17th century paintings.”

“Same. It’s alright, we will somehow make it work, I’m sure.”

“With the power of bullshitting. My favorite superpower.”

“Mine too.” You giggled at his boyish happiness, but then reigned yourself in. Fuck, if you were showing your endearment with him so clearly, you also could’ve just made a sign. “But seriously though, we need to make some progress here. The topic…”

Iruka whistled through his teeth. “The main directions of art in Europe during the 17th Century. What a fun topic.”

“That would be Memento Mori and… Veritas?”

“I believe?” Iruka looked just as puzzled as you felt.

You already scrolled through your notes on your laptop. “Oh shit. It’s Vanitas and… Memento Mori and Vanitas are closely related. I think.” you added after a second. 

Iruka nodded. “Though, there was also another one… Carpe… Carpe diem?”

“Yeah!” Quickly, you scribbled the two motives of the Baroque period down. “These two were the opposites of each other, and memento mori was about death and carpe diem… Something about “live the day”?”

“Actually, exactly that.”

“Oh, sweet.” You pumped your fist. “Finally, my brain remembered something correctly.”

Iruka’s smile was worth the weak joke. “We also have… Psychology together, right? And one of the teaching courses?”

“I haven’t seen you in Psychology”, that was a lie, you totally spotted him as soon as you were aware of your crush, “but in the teaching course… With Professor Hiruzen, right?”

“Yep.” Iruka let the ‘p’ really pop on his lips. “Hard to forget me over that one, I take it.”

Indeed. Iruka, together with a few other freshmen, had played a prank on the old professor who always smelled a lot like an overcrowded bar without any smoking restrictions. They smuggled a goat inside the auditorium, put a wide sun hat on the goat and a sign with Professor Hiruzen’s name on it. 

The fallout had been glorious and resulted in a serious discussion about animal abuse through university pranks. Where the goat came from, no one really knew, but Iruka and his friends had been hailed as something akin to heroes for a week or so. 

“Indeed,” you mused while watching how Iruka worked over his own notepad, his pencil scribbling away in surprisingly neat handwriting. “Would be very hard to forget about that.”

Gods, in that moment, your life felt like a movie. Just for a second, and that was enough. Sunlight fell upon his chestnut-colored hair, tied into his lazy bun, just in time for him to raise his hands once more to lazily wipe the few strands out of his face. Iruka’s face tilted upwards, the scar crossing the bridge of his nose catching the light as well, giving his darker skin a wonderful hue of sheer, and utter-!

“You’re beautiful.”

For a moment, you weren’t even aware you said one word. You just watched how Iruka flinched and asked yourself in the back of your head why he would flinch. Only when he truly looked at you, a hint of redness creeping up his neck, you realized your lips had indeed moved and that you indeed said them out loud instead of merely thinking them.

Instantly, your face went warm and uncomfortable. One hand flew up to hide your mouth, even though you couldn’t take away those words at all. Oh, how much you wanted to take those words back.

“I’m so sorry,” you mumbled, horrified and voice shaky, “I’m so fucking sorry. I never should’ve said that.”

Iruka was still suspiciously silent. Only the redness creeping over his face increased, making him even lovelier than usual. His brown eyes shifted around; couldn’t settle onto your eyes, your nose, your neck, your lips…

“I didn’t…” You swallowed and tried to find any excuse to make the situation easier on him. “I didn’t… I never wanted to tell you that, I just think you’re really cute, always thought that. And I’m totally freaking out right now because I never wanted to tell you that either, just… urgh, please. Ignore me. Forget this as well, I know it must be embarrassing for you, I know-!”

“No.”

It was your time to sputter. Did you just hear that? Did you really hear Iruka mutter a defiant “no”? One look at him, spotting the blushed face and the warm eyes, and you practically melted. Just like ice cream in the height of summer, when the sun reached its pinnacle. Melted right into a puddle beneath the table. 

“I won’t forget it,” Iruka continued, “and it’s… it’s not that embarrassing. Not embarrassing in the way you think.”

“It isn’t?” Your ridiculously high voice hurt in your own ears. However, there was a tiny spark of hope lightening up your heart, and the spark kept on growing when Iruka pushed his notebook aside and leaned over, like you two were sharing a secret. 

“It isn’t,” he said, wiping again a few more stubborn strands behind his ear, all the while the scar over his nose crinkled the tiniest bit in the shaky smile he gave you, “it totally isn’t… Uhm… unwelcome, so to say.”

“It isn’t?” you repeated. Completely and utterly flabbergasted, at the prospect of… “Me telling you that you’re beautiful isn’t unwelcome?”

“No.” Iruka blushed even further. “It isn’t.”

“Oh.” 

“Yeah…”

“ _Oooh_.”

“Yup.”

More silence. Though, your eyes met over the table, laptop and notepads. Again and again, you sneaked glances at each other, before you burst out giggling when once more, Iruka looked at you when you were just busy admiring the way the blush colored his face into a lovely shade.

“We can’t work like this.” 

Thankfully, Iruka smiled as well. “Not really. What do you say, we concentrate now on the project and afterwards, we can maybe go for a coffee or a tea or something else?”

“Sounds lovely.” Another look at each other, smiles secretive and yet hopeful for the near future.

The promise of something new laid in the air, and you couldn’t wait to wrap up the presentation. Well, working on the project together with Iruka was still great, as it gave you opportunities already to get to know him better. 

**Author's Note:**

> Only proofread by me, sorry for any mistakes >-<


End file.
